The business behind the show

The Morning Fix: Drug company really wants to produce! Warner Bros. wants you to wait. Justice to review Comcast-NBC. Avatar heading to FX

January 7, 2010 | 6:58
am

After the coffee. Before deciding if it'll be Alabama or Texas. (Hint: Texas)

Warner Bros. wants you to wait. Hoping to boost DVD sales, Warner Bros. struck a deal with Netflix in which the online-DVD-rental powerhouse will agree to wait 28 days after the studio's DVD releases have been available for purchase to start offering rentals. Warner Bros. already got Redbox to agree to a 28-day window, but the DVD-kiosk company is challenging that in court. Other studios will be monitoring the Warner Bros.-Netflix pact closely. Details from Los Angeles Times.

Diet-drug manufacturer really just wants to produce. Drug company (oh, sorry, I meant pharmaceutical company) GlaxoSmithKline is financing a documentary about eating and obesity that ultimately it hopes will boost awareness of its diet product Alli (not as in that other Ally -- McBeal -- I hope). Hollywood nonprofit advocacy group the Creative Coalition is teaming up with the company and the New York Times, which was fed the diet-movie story (Get it? Fed the story? I'm on fire with this one), said an Academy Award-winning director will be announced at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.

Spider-Man out, Thor in. With Sony Pictures' next installment of "Spider-Man" caught in a web of creative differences, another Marvel superhero, Thor, is gearing up to leap into action. Paramount and Marvel said they were moving up their movie to early May of next year in anticipation of "Spider-Man" being delayed. Details from Variety.

Distracted driving is only going to increase. As if it weren't
bad enough that folks drive around babbling on their cellphones or
answering e-mails and texting (admit it, you did that yesterday), soon the
Internet will be on your dashboard. The New York Times has the scary story on new
infotainment systems hitting cars that will include various Internet
functions that will surely be just one more thing to keep the eyes of
drivers off the road. Yes, I'm editorializing here.

Time Warner Cable vs. Fox: The aftermath. Details are starting to trickle out on Fox's deal for its TV stations with Time Warner Cable. As we reported, the two companies have a multiyear agreement that started around 50 cents per susbcriber with annual increases. Variety's Cynthia Littleton reports that, ultimately, Fox will end up with 75 cents per subscriber at the end of their deal.

Sony's 3-D gamble. Sony Chairman Howard Stringer is betting big on 3-D technology revitalizing the consumer-electronics and Hollywood giant. But it'll be a long climb for the company, which trails Korean giants Samsung and LG Electronics in TV sales. The Wall Street Journal on what's at stake for Stringer and Sony.

And the winner is. John Shaffner was reelected to head the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, winning a runoff against Brian Seth Hurst, says the Hollywood Reporter.